Twilight 'Tweeners
by Oceaness
Summary: A series of one shots that take place during the Twilight Saga story. Bella can't be everywhere at once, so what have we been missing?
1. Chapter 1

Twilight 'Tweener #1

"Do you mind?" Bella asked tentatively as she and Jasper passed the level-three ladies' room. "I'll just be a moment."

Jasper shook his head. "I'll be right here," he assured, standing to the side of the door. Bella darted inside. At once he heard the rapid footfalls of Bella running across the linoleum. His brow creased; she must have needed the restroom more than he thought. But the running steps retreated farther than expected, fading slightly with distance.

Suspicion rose inside him, followed by anxiety. Tilting his head closer to the door, he could still hear Bella running. But her footsteps were muffled now, as if on carpeting instead of the hard bathroom floor.

Jasper's immediate instinct was to push open the door and see for himself the cause of the strange change. Then he realized that this was a ladies' room, and his entering, no matter how justified, would not go over well with the other occupants.

Suddenly he noticed something else: he could scarcely locate the frantic pounding of Bella's ever-agitated heart.

"Alice!" he said urgently. While not quite a yell, it was enough for Alice, sitting a couple hundred yards away, to look up anxiously. Her eyes took in Jasper's troubled expression, and he quickly gestured for her to come over. She left the baggage without a second glance and tripped quickly to his side.

"What's wrong?" she demanded.

"Check if Bella's inside."

Alice flitted in, to dart out a half second later. The look on her face confirmed his suspicions. "There are two exits," she whispered. For a long second they stared at each other, faces filled with concern.

It mildly surprised Jasper when Alice took his hand, mumbling "Come on!" and pulled him through the door. They were across the linoleum in a second, the other occupants being in stalls. Once out, they quickly followed Bella's scent to a set of elevators around the corner. One was whirring its way to their level. Alice leapt forward and pressed its down button. It came to a halt and opened its doors with an automated ding.

In that moment luck was on their side; the elevator held only one man who exited on their level, foreseen by Alice. It was always discomforting for humans to be in such a confined space with others of their kind. For the vampires it was extremely so. The temptation could get very strong indeed. Alice felt a hint of relief that she wouldn't need to be concerned about Jasper in that aspect. Losing Bella was worrying enough.

Immediately after she had pushed the button for level one, Jasper pressed the one above it. She met his eyes curiously, but then understood. They couldn't assume that Bella had gotten out on the _first_ floor.

The breeze of fresh air through the opening doors, though, brought no trace of Bella's scent, and Alice was tapping the close button even before the doors had fully opened.

Once on the ground floor, Jasper automatically started to move in the direction of Bella's still strong scent, but Alice lightly gripped his arm.

"Just a second," she murmured, her face taking on a familiar blankness. "The front entrance," she breathed, and her eyes refocused.

Moving as fast as they dared, they cut a bee line to the entrance through the scurrying throngs of people, always holding their breath when needing to squeeze through small crowds. Thankfully, the humans were more willing to move aside once they caught sight of the strange, pale figures pacing toward them.

A hundred yards from the sliding doors, Alice gasped.

"We're too late."

Jasper shot her a glance, but they kept walking.

At the entrance to the airport, the sliding glass doors opened and closed as people went in and out, pulling their bulky luggage. Alice and Jasper strode outside, right up to the edge of the sidewalk, and then halted, their knees locking. The shade created by the overhang ended – changed to brilliant sunlight. They could not cross that line. Already the sun was reflecting off the hot concrete and onto their exposed skin, making them glow subtly. They inconspicuously took a couple steps back.

Jasper could only vaguely tell which direction Bella went, as her trail had mysteriously vanished near the sidewalk. Where had she gone...?

There was an influx of emotion, and he looked down. Alice was staring at the bright sidewalk, her lips pushed tightly together. Waves of shame and loss emanated from her. He put his arm around her waist and held her against him.

"How could...? We should've––" Alice shook her head, crestfallen. "It _can't _end this way."

Jasper stroked her arm. He knew how happy Alice was to finally know Bella, to _finally_ start their long-lasting friendship she had foreseen months ago. To lose her now would be devastating.

They stood like that for several moments, drawing the attention of only a few travelers, who quickly averted their gaze once Jasper stared back at them.

When Alice's emotions seemed stable again, Jasper murmured, "What are we going to tell Edward?" He held her tighter to ease any coming reaction.

She looked up at him again, eyes full with dread. "I...I'm not sure."

He nudged her, and they reluctantly went back inside the building.

"Carlisle is coming as well," Jasper reminded her as they headed back to level three. "He'll probably know what to do."

Alice nodded, and, though her body didn't need it, took a deep breath.

When the elevator doors opened to their level, Alice suddenly spoke. "We won't even have to _say _anything, I guess," she said, laughing humorlessly.

It disconcerted Jasper to see Alice this way. She was so perpetually happy and optimistic. "It'll be fine," he murmured. "We can still save her."

"Jazz, I told you this morning. At this point...it's not going to end well."

Alice relied so much on her visions.

"You _know_ how things can change," Jasper urged. "Your visions are not always set in stone, remember?"

She nodded. They reached the luggage – Bella's luggage – unmoved from where they had left it. Alice glanced up at the clock as they sat down. The plane from Seattle would be disembarking any minute now.

Suddenly Alice remembered Bella's letter. To her mother – or so she had said.

She quickly flipped open her black leather bag. The unmarked envelope was near the top. As Jasper watched, she ripped it open and unfolded the note.

_Edward, _it said.

_I love you. I am so sorry. He has my mom, and I have to try. I know it may not work. I am so very, very sorry._

In her peripheral vision, Alice checked Jasper's reaction to this new information. His eyes were narrowed.

_Don't be angry with Alice and Jasper. If I get away from them it will be a miracle. Tell them thank you for me. Alice especially, please._

_And please, please don't come after him. That's what he wants, I think. I can't bear it if anyone has to be hurt because of me, especially you. Please, this is the only thing I can ask you now. For me._

_I love you. Forgive me._

_Bella_



"That's a lie," Jasper said abruptly.

"What?"

"The tracker does not have Bella's mother. It's just a threat – bait to lead her to a place he chooses."

Alice made her face black again, looking into the near future. Again she saw Bella and James in that same mirrored room, the room Bella had said was her old ballet studio…

"Fifty-Eighth Street and Cactus," she recalled quietly. Alice stood, about to stride toward the elevators again.

"Wait," said Jasper. "Perhaps Edward should be there, too."

Alice threw her arms in the air. "There's no t––!" She froze, looking to her right. "Oh God," she breathed. Jasper followed her line of sight, and froze as well.

Edward, Carlisle and Emmett were moving quickly through the crowd toward them. Edward's eyes were piercing, having seen that Bella was not with them.

Dimly, Jasper and Alice realized that all Edward was getting from their thoughts was shock and anxiety. But that was sure to change.

_Maybe this isn't the place to tell him_, Jasper thought fleetingly.

In moments, the three stood facing them.

"What happened?" Carlisle asked immediately.

"We lost her," Jasper said before Alice could speak. She shouldn't have to do this.

"You––!?" Edward started to exclaim, but Carlisle's hand flashed up to grip his shoulder.

"But we know where she is!" Alice blurted. She let her mind run over everything they had figured out. As Edward absorbed the information with a mixture of horror and pain, she slowly handed him Bella's scrawled note. He didn't need to look at it, having already seen it in their heads. Carlisle and Emmett looked between them, the latter impatiently.

"Shall we go?" asked Jasper. In an instant they were all pacing toward the end of the floor, trying very hard to maintain human speed.

"We're taking the _elevator_?" Emmett asked incredulously.

"No, the stairs," Alice said quickly. "The stairs will be faster this time."

And there were hardly any people on the stairs at that moment. They picked up the pace slightly, skirting around the few humans in their way. Then they headed for the front entrance.

"How long has she been gone?" Edward asked quietly, pain still in his voice.

Jasper glanced at the lobby clock. "A little over twenty minutes," he answered.

"Well, hopefully she's hasn't gone far," said Carlisle.

Jasper waited for Edward to explain, but when he did not, went ahead himself.

"Bella was tricked into believing the tracker held her mother hostage at a ballet studio near her home," he informed the others. "I have no idea how that happened, though." He glanced at Alice curiously.

She grimaced. "Earlier, when you were checking out, the phone rang. I…thought it was her mother and gave her the phone. She seemed all anxious about something, but I didn't ––" She shook her head.

"Did you hear the conversation?" Carlisle asked calmly.

"No, not really. She walked into the other room and closed the door. I thought she just wanted privacy." Alice paused. "And then she was answering weird, just saying 'yes' or 'no' to things on the phone."

"And you weren't suspicious?" Edward's voice came out hard.

"No. I'm sorry. I should've suspected it was James." She hung her head.

There was silence. Jasper tried ardently to think of ways to take the blame off Alice, but came up with nothing.

Outside, they kept to the shadow of the building. Bella's scent had by then faded to a wisp, diluted by other humans. Edward would have stood at the edge of the sidewalk where her trail ended, but now that they knew where she was, quickly led the others around the building to the parking structure.

It was very hard to find a car fast enough. Most of the vehicles were outdated, meant for business. When Emmett came across a relatively modern sports car, he wasted no time in breaking in and hotwiring it himself while Carlisle frowned in disapproval.

"I don't know if ––" Jasper started to say as Edward got in the driver's seat, but then he stopped. Bella was Edward's soul mate, and hopefully he wouldn't run over _too_ many humans in his rescue.

They wove through the parking structure, swerving onto the main road at fifty-five miles per hour.

"Aren't we gonna need a map?" asked Emmett, who was sitting in the back with Alice and Jasper.

"There's a GPS," said Edward shortly. His fingers slid across the touch screen, glowering when he realized the screen was mostly responsive to temperature. He typed in the crossroads and locked the destination.

It was a long drive, even taking much less than the twenty minutes predicted by the GPS. Jasper felt the colossal impatience radiating from the driver's seat every time they were forced to stop at an intersection. Alice held his hand on the seat. Stopped at another light, he wondered vaguely why she wasn't looking into the future now, to see whether all their efforts would come to nothing.

As if she knew what he was thinking, Alice closed her eyes, frowning in concentration. Her sudden gasp made everyone but Edward jump.

But Alice had a smile on her face. "We – I'm eighty-three percent sure we're going to make it in time."

Relief flooded the car, but they were cautious. They would make it only if nothing arose to disrupt their current course.

One time it seemed possible when, near their destination, they saw a police car parked to the side of the road. But he was in the process of talking to a pulled-over driver and hardly reacted when the sports car zoomed past, speaking into his radio.

The car slammed to a screeching halt just outside the low, grey building. The parking lot was empty. Without a second of hesitation, Edward threw open his door, taking it right off the car, and flashed into the building, faster than they had ever seen him.

Mildly shocked at his instant departure, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Carlisle threw open their doors and followed him, streaking like blurs into the studio.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: For those wondering, Twilight 'Tweener is a play on the word 'betweener,' which I suppose isn't even a real word itself. These one-shots take place between the canon scenes of the Twilight Saga, either with Bella not present or unconscious. ;)_

* * *

Twilight 'Tweener #2

_(This one takes place in Twilight, when the Cullens take a sleeping Bella to the hospital after James' attack.)_

"Sleep now, Bella," Edward had murmured a few moments before.

"Is she asleep?" Carlisle asked quietly. Bella's breathing had grown slow and deep almost instantly.

"Yes," Edward answered.

"I'm proud of you, son. You have undergone, I should think, the most grueling ordeal of them all. And you succeeded, which does not surprise me," he added, smiling wryly.

Edward's face contorted. "I almost didn't stop, Carlisle," he groaned.

"But you did," said Carlisle soothingly. "You found the will."

The others said nothing. Emmett, Alice and Jasper tried to provide as much privacy for them as possible, disregarding each word as they heard it. But still, they heard.

"How are we going to get to the hospital if the car's trashed?" asked Emmett, changing the subject without subtlety. He waved his arm toward the sports car, parked illegally across the white lines, one door lying on the pavement.

"I just got off the phone with the nearest hospital," said Alice, holding up her cell phone. "I told the paramedics to meet us at a place a couple streets from here. We don't want to be seen with this, obviously." She jerked her thumb toward the car.

Everyone froze.

"And _how_," demanded Emmett, "do you suppose we're going to get there with all of this?" He gestured largely, indicating the blazing sunlight.

Alice made a face. "Lucky for us, there's only the _slimmest_ chance we'll be seen," she said coolly, but there was a hint of doubt in her voice. Her eyebrows creased. "We'll have to be fast."

Everyone looked to Carlisle.

"Carlisle." Edward's voice broke the following silence. "We _need_ to get Bella into medical care as soon as possible."

"It's a very hot day," added Alice. "Just about everyone will be indoors."

Carlisle exhaled slowly. "I want to protect our family," he said. "But Bella is now a part of our family, too. Let's go, then."

The others started toward the end of the parking lot, and to the end of the building's shade, but Jasper said, "Wait."

They looked back. He was staring at Alice.

"Alice… Isn't there _an_y other way we can get to the hospital?"

She frowned. "We can't have the paramedics meet us here, with the studio burning inside... We can't take the car, as the police are already onto its theft…"

He continued to gaze at her. "Someone might see you," he murmured.

Her face softened, while the others flicked their eyes away.

"I know," she said, smiling slightly. "But we _have_ to get Bella to the hospital."

"There's shade every so often," said Edward curtly. Impatience radiated from him.

Jasper nodded, resigned, and they were off.

Heat rose in waves from the blacktops, casting mirages of water that moved ever farther in the distance. Every flicker through the sun was tense. Any human could look out their window or over their backyard fence and see several figures sparkling, light reflecting off their skin and throwing faint rainbows. Of course, the humans wouldn't immediately know their true nature, but it would mean attention and dangerous speculation.

They went one at a time, shooting through each long stretch of brightness so fast that it was over in a full second. There were many stretches of sunlight.

Edward held Bella securely as they crossed the final section, sunlight shattering off their skin one last time. If anyone had seen them, hopefully they would put it off as a momentary lapse in vision.

In a few minutes, the ambulance, sirens blaring, pulled to a stop in front of the shady section of sidewalk where they stood waiting. Men clad in navy-blue got out and hurriedly lifted Bella onto the stretcher, securing her broken leg and placing an oxygen feed under her nose.

"I need to stay with her," Edward stated.

Two of the paramedics glanced at each other.

"Sure, young man," one agreed. "You can sit up front." He indicated the passenger seat. As Edward and the other paramedic got in, he glanced back at the rest of the Cullens. "You folks okay here? You need a ride?" Of course, there was not enough room in the ambulance for all of them.

"No, thank you," said Carlisle cordially. "You take Bella to the hospital."

The man jumped in the back, slammed the doors shut, and the ambulance pulled into traffic, sirens blaring again.

***

As Alice fiddled with the wires of another local car, Carlisle crossed his arms. "I'm reporting this one to the police," he said sternly.

"We just need it to get to the hospital and airport," she said defensively. "They'll have their car back before they know it."

"But we're causing them a horrible inconvenience."

"I have to get back to Rose," Emmett stated. "She's probably getting her dander up worrying."

"Did you want to come with me to the hospital, Alice?" Carlisle asked as they got in the tinted-windowed car.

"Well, yes," Alice admitted, flicking her gaze to Jasper in the rearview mirror.

"We'll wait for you back in Forks," said Emmett, nudging Jasper's shoulder as the car sped toward the hospital.

Carlisle and Alice got out at the hospital entrance, Emmett now in the driver's seat of the stolen car.

"You be certain to leave that car in an easy location to find," Carlisle instructed.

"Sure thing," Emmett said, grinning.

Jasper and Alice looked into each other's eyes for a long second, drinking in the sight of the other to last them the short time apart.

Emmett hit the gas, and the car spun a tight U-turn before zooming back to the highway.

Inside, the nurses directed Carlisle and Alice to Bella's room on the ground floor. They opened the door slowly.

To one side Bella lay wrapped in bandages and gauze, hooked up to a giant monitor that beeped steadily. An IV feed of O-negative was inserted into her arm. Her broken leg was splinted and wrapped in plaster, raised in a sling.

Sitting in a chair against the opposite wall was Edward, clearly brooding. His pose was like that of the famous Thinker statue.

"They don't know when she will wake up," Edward spoke as they entered the room. "She might slip into a coma." He bent his head further.

"Her body needs to heal itself," said Carlisle. "She will come to eventually. We did give her a generous amount of morphine."

"Shall I _see_ when she'll wake up?" inquired Alice.

"Please do," said Edward.

Alice sifted through moving images of the near future, extending further when she saw Bella still unconscious.

"Mm," she sighed. "It will be about three days." She frowned.

Edward tensed, then murmured, "Perhaps it's better that she's unaware. She won't feel any pain."

They nodded slowly.

"What have you told the staff?" asked Carlisle.

Edward smiled wryly. "I said what _could_ have happened. Bella was running away from home, and we came after her to try to convince her otherwise. She came to our hotel, and on the way up the stairs she fell down two flights and through a window."

Alice smiled. "That's a little unbelievable."

"Well, how else to explain her extensive injuries?" Edward paused, his mouth pressing into a hard line. "With her clumsiness, that might have happened."

"I suppose so," Carlisle mused.

"Hmm," said Alice, clearly contemplating something enjoyable. They both looked at her curiously.

"Well, if she fell down two flights of stairs and through a window," Alice said slowly, "there needs to be some evidence." She grinned.

Carlisle and Edward glanced at each other.

"So, um, _which_ hotel did you say we were staying at?" Alice asked innocently.

Edward sighed, clearly onto what Alice was thinking.

"The Doubletree."

* * *

_A/N: Please no flames! I had no idea how the Cullens got Bella to the hospital in the first place! But tune in next time as Alice creates her "evidence." Plus a special appearance of Renee._


End file.
